When Stratocaster Nuts Drive You Nuts - Keeping The 6-Screw Fender Tremolo In Tune:

@heltershelton - I have been asked what song really demonstrates my tone and style and I would have to say it is this cover of Rory Gallagher's 1987 hit 'Road To Hell.' This is my usual drummer (Ffej Rednil) and I with me playing all guitars and bass. This is also the very first song that I engineered, mixed and mastered myself. Some have pointed out that the guitar is too loud and in your face, but that's really how I play live, so I tried to capture that in this studio version:

love it!
 
@heltershelton - I'll have my drink in hand and just give cold stares at my guitar from across the room and say out loud, "this could be you in my hand but you wanted to suck so now you just sit over there and think about that for awhile".

LOL!!!!!!!!!
a friend at ST said this in a thread one time and i shot beer out of my nose when i read it, so i asked him if i could use it for my sig.
 
It doesn't need a roller, the original button has worked just fine for the last 25 years. It's better than the butterfly on the Classic Player 50s pictured somewhere up the thread.

I would think that friction point would be an issue!!!!!
 
And here's the original version. I don't feel like my version is a worthy offering in comparison to Rory's, but it's a good effort for an uneducated musician....

this is the curse of being a guitar player.
i dont like anything ive ever done. what i hear and what you hear are two different things.....kinda like when you hear a recording of yourself talking.
but we continue on.....
 
this is the curse of being a guitar player.
i dont like anything ive ever done. what i hear and what you hear are two different things.....kinda like when you hear a recording of yourself talking.
but we continue on.....

Exactly,

I hate my singing voice, but I started singing ONLY because our singer quit one night, 5 minutes before a live performance at Mineral King Bowl in Visalia, California on Friday, July 7, 1989. I had to sing our lose the band's $100.00 deposit we had already spent on King Cobra Malt Liquor and street tacos....

July 7th 1989.jpg

Mineral King Bowl was a big venue for a small band at the time. We were setup on a semi trailer on the infield shown in this file photo looking NW from the south grandstands.

fda73a85-6eb0-473e-9d24-313259915caf.jpg
 
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sounds cool as hell man. i really dig your use of wide vibrato and unison bends.
i like to give pitches vibrato too.
pitches love vibrato.


Robert, I will never say you can't play your azzz off, boy. I was checking out your Watchtower version vs Jimi's, Now I can't stop listening to it. I have likely replayed it 15 times before finishing this post.


I definitely hear a difference in attack, and of course singing between your version and Jimi. Pretty sure you could do a side by side and pick up on my experiences too. I am willing to bet, you use very little WAH in your version. Obviously Humbucker to Single coil is way different. Jimi's is just so nice and chimey, with an airiness to the feel. His note definition is just airy and bleeds into a wall of sound that to me is like a painter who just painted a 15x 40 foot mural vs someone trying to paint something on a 6x8 inch canvas. I am sure a lot of this is from use of a Fuzz Face, Octavia, Wah, etc. BUT I think the other things I hear most are how his 2 hands laid out the strums and jangly bits in a sort of airy swirly feel vs how your 2 hands are the buzz saw style like you mention in Motorhead etc type songs.


As I listen to this awesomely shot clip, I kind of put Jimi's performance here right in between how it sounds on the studio version vs Robert's interpretation.

 
Robert, I will never say you can't play your azzz off, boy. I was checking out your Watchtower version vs Jimi's, Now I can't stop listening to it. I have likely replayed it 15 times before finishing this post.


I definitely hear a difference in attack, and of course singing between your version and Jimi. Pretty sure you could do a side by side and pick up on my experiences too. I am willing to bet, you use very little WAH in your version. Obviously Humbucker to Single coil is way different. Jimi's is just so nice and chimey, with an airiness to the feel. His note definition is just airy and bleeds into a wall of sound that to me is like a painter who just painted a 15x 40 foot mural vs someone trying to paint something on a 6x8 inch canvas. I am sure a lot of this is from use of a Fuzz Face, Octavia, Wah, etc. BUT I think the other things I hear most are how his 2 hands laid out the strums and jangly bits in a sort of airy swirly feel vs how your 2 hands are the buzz saw style like you mention in Motorhead etc type songs.


As I listen to this awesomely shot clip, I kind of put Jimi's performance here right in between how it sounds on the studio version vs Robert's interpretation.


Jimi is amazing and my version is just a humble street punk trying to pay tribute to an idol....I was hugely moved by his performances.

I wish I could play with his finesse.
 
Jimi is amazing and my version is just a humble street punk trying to pay tribute to an idol....I was hugely moved by his performances.

I wish I could play with his finesse.


Notice the difference in how his Studio version sounds vs the 1970 Live clip with him Isolated. I hear it, and yet I also see his magic coordination in how he just exudes his will onto that Strat and has his way with it. Subtleties and fierce whammy twangs and all. I bet Jimi was more than a few cents off in his tuning too LOL
 
Oh yeah, Robert. Now you know the value of the lesson you have learned where the struggle to remedy the issue added to your mental toolbox. You now have a measure of the experience ingrained into your DNA for having had to deal with this flaw in the build and can add technique and theory of a well cut nut to your arsenal. AND It did not cost $200. I will now like you to make a Brass nut to duplicate this one for when it comes time to swap out the worn one this will soon become.
 
Notice the difference in how his Studio version sounds vs the 1970 Live clip with him Isolated. I hear it, and yet I also see his magic coordination in how he just exudes his will onto that Strat and has his way with it. Subtleties and fierce whammy twangs and all. I bet Jimi was more than a few cents off in his tuning too LOL

I have heard Jimi's Strat go out of whack live and that's a shame because it could have been fixed!!!
 
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